Friday, January 21, 2011

TAKE THE NAME OF JESUS WITH YOU

This beautiful hymn was written by a woman name Lydia Baxter, inspired by Colossians 3:17, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jeus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Most of us realize the name “Jesus” brings comfort,, cheer, settledness to those who are suffering and/or bereaved. It can also bring a sense of peace to persons who are depressed and/or fearful. Lydia Baxter was bed-ridden most of her life, she was always cheerful and patient. She would tell friends she had a “special armor. the Name of Jesus. when the Tempter tries to make me blue or despondent, I mention the Name Jesus and he can’t get to me anymore.” Mrs Baxter wrote this hymn from her bed, just four years before her death in 1874 at age 65. She was always known for her interest in and discussion of Bible names…their origin and those who bore those names…Samuel, “asked of God,” Hannah, “grace,” Sarah, “princess,” but the name that meant the most to her was the name, Jesus. It was used often during the evangelistic campaigns of DL Moody and Ira Sankey in the latter part of the 19th century. We still sing this hymn today, it speaks to us about carrying His name through our lives and even speaks to us of eternity, and the “joy of Heaven” that awaits us.

Here are the words, ponder them and enjoy…

Take the name of Jesus with you, child of sorrow and of woe; it will joy and comfort give you…take it then where’er you go…

Take the name od Jesus with you, as a shield from every snare; if temptations round you gather, breathe that holy name in prayer…

O the precious name of Jesus, How it thrills our souls with joy. When His loving arms receive us, and His songs our tongues employ…

At the name of Jesus bowing, falling prostrate at His feet, King of Kings in heaven we’ll crown Him, when our journey is complete…

CHORUS…Precious name, O how sweet, hope of earth and joy of heaven.

Friday, January 7, 2011

DAY BY DAY

This seems an appropriate hymn to think ponder early in a new year. It was written by a young Swedish woman, along with many others.
She learned early in life to live with the consciousness of the Lord’s presence all the time.

At the age of 26 Lina experienced an event that influenced her all the rest of her life. She and her father took a ship going to the city of Gothenburg, Sweden across Lake Vattern. The ship lurched, and her father, A devout Lutheran minister, fell overboard and drowned before the eyes of his adoring daughter. Prior to this event Lina had written some 650 hymns, many that influenced the revival that swept the Scandinavian countries during the latter half od the 19th century. After the tragic death of her father, poetic thoughts, expressing a tender, childlike faith and trust flowed freely from her broken heart. So tender and touching were her many beautiful hymns expressing her love for her Lord, she became known as the “Fanny Crosby of Sweden.” Ponder these beautiful words:

Day by day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here; trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,  I’ve no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond all measure gives unto each day what He deems best…lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest.

Every day the Lord Himself is near me with a special mercy for each hour; All my cares He fain would bear, and cheer me, he whose name is Counsellor and Power. The protection of His child and treasure is a charge that on Himself He laid: “As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,” this the pledge to me He made.

For some reason, the words of this hymn really speak to me. I am very fond of hymns but this one seems special. I think Lina’s “trust” level climbed and climbed through out her life, until she so “leaned into” her Lord for everything, she just rested in His goodness and love for her. I relate to that and aspire to the same kind of love for Him. I know it only comes with time and trial, I know that because I have lived through both and learned much, both about myself and about my Master. The words of this precious hymn say it well and will always be very special to me.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

WHAT TO TAKE INTO ETERNITY

Oswald Chambers, that grand writer from England, said God’s not interested in our doings but in our character…it is the only thing we can take with us into eternity. Think about that…we could work/serve Him all our lives, doing all kinds of wonderful, kind things and have them count for nothing when we appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ. And why??????  Because He is interested primarily in what we “are”…what we have allowed the Holy Spirit to accomplish IN us! We kind of loose sight of the fact that we are born in sin, with a very active sin nature that just about always wants us to do what we shouldn’t. And of course that starts with our thought processes…think it, entertain it, finally do it.

There are lots of places in the Word that speak to the renewing of the mind. If anything needs a makeover, our minds do. Especially when you think of them as a computer with a humongus hard drive. Everything that gets fed in, gets filed away for future reference. And all those accumulated thots and ideas are like filters, through which we run our experiences and observations, good, bad, somewhere in between. They definitely color our actions and re-actions to life situations, how we handle most things. When most of our input is negative and ugly, we see most of life from a negative and/or ugly perspective, then we act accordingly. We need to “unlearn” those points of view and the only one to enable us to do that is the Holy Spirit. That’s probably the hardest part of His job…bringing us to the place that we can see our bad thinking and behavior. When we mature to the point we can actually be aware of our crookedness and sinful thinking, we are making good progress down the path to fullness in Christ.

I once read an old tract that was called,”others may, you may not..” I only had one and lost it some place along the way. The point of it was that God is preparing us for whatever place He has for us to serve. Most places are unique to the one serving so it makes sense that the training would be equally unique. What God will allow one follower to do, He may not let you do. Why? You may never know until you are face to face with Him. But…He knows why you can’t, and you may be sure there is a reason. Obedience…one of the most critical character qualities but obviously one that matters very much to Him…obedience. Do you think Abraham WANTED to kill Isaac???? I’m sure He did not, but he followed the instructions God gave him, to the letter, without understanding. Could you? Could I? I wonder…

Another part of character changing is learning to “not go with the Flo.” We are living in a time period that the Bible describes as “calling right wrong and wrong right,” but that doesn’t mean we must do what we know is wrong, even just “a little” wrong. So many of God’s instructions for us, especially for family life, are completely turned around. Marriage has become “unnecessary” in general. Living together or multiple relationships are common. Divorce is commonplace. Affairs, one night stands, all are done everyday. And the affects on any children is disasterous in most cases. No wonder our character is so warped and twisted when all around us is totally contrary to what God has instructed  in His Word. He says, “one man, one woman, for life.” Most of us don’t want to go through the character-building exercise of working through a marriage, creating security for children, actually making a family…with His help all the way. Character…it isn’t changed and built overnight, it takes time and a lot of hard work, but I believe eternity will tell us, it was worth it.